10-27-09 DARST v. BLAIRSTOWN TOWNSHIP

10-27-09 CARL AND DELLA DARST v. BLAIRSTOWN TOWNSHIP
ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT
A-0308-08T3

Although a land use board ordinarily may not impose
aesthetic conditions upon a site plan, we sustain their
imposition in the context of this bifurcated application. We do
so because the use variance the Board of Adjustment had granted
earlier to the applicants was founded upon "special reasons"
that included certain positive aesthetic factors relating to the
placement of self-storage containers on the property. The Board
relied upon the applicants' representations in the use variance
phase that they would install rows of a certain kind of
container near the front of the property, and the Board was
justified in rejecting the applicants' later attempt in the site
plan phase to substitute a different kind of container that
comparatively had visual drawbacks.

We invalidate, however, the Board's attempt to shorten the
two-year period assured to the applicants under N.J.S.A. 40:55D-
52 for completing paving, landscaping and other "conditions
subsequent" to the approved site plan.


Assistant Editor: Umair Hussain